Need your advice on attending Mass

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So they don’t care about people who are different! Why shouod those who are different not be taken into consideration? This confuses me. Even at church they dont want people to be different! What a shame!!!
I am going to join a choir and sing the high notes. I guess a tenor sings up to at least G4. I hope they allow me to sing up to A4 as well!
 
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jesusmademe said:
So they don’t care about people who are different! Why shouod those who are different not be taken into consideration?
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How exactly would they do this? Just play in a key that one or two people can sing? How would that work? Like everyone else, sing your best. I don’t think anyone will restrict your notes – my mother used to stand next to me during Mass singing the alto harmony to the hymns. No one said or did anything – but she certainly didn’t expect the organist to accommodate her particular voice to the exclusion of the majority.
 
I’m a very good pianist and a decent organist, but I can’t transpose on the fly. Some organs have transpose functions, but many don’t. And Clavinovas have transpose functions, but a lot of Catholic churches have pianos, not Clavinovas.

I wish I could transpose on the fly. My organ teacher tried to teach me, and I was doing pretty well, but since I don’t play full time, it doesn’t take long before the skill dissipates. Oh, well.

I think people should consider taking some singing classes or lessons and learning how to sing in a head voice, which allows many of us to sing much higher than we can in a chest voice. I am amazed at how much this has helped me to have a larger range, including the high notes. I’m no soloist, but I can sing higher-pitched hymns without squeaking now. 🙂
 
JulianN said:
I have to say that in every parish I’ve ever attended or worked, and they are many, the organist was in charge of the choir and music.
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How can and organist play and conduct, its one or the other , need 2 hands for both activities 🙂
 
JulianN said:
my mother used to stand next to me during Mass singing the alto harmony to the hymns.
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We have alto soprano, tenor, descant, , both melody and harmony.
People will sing to the melody line, we ensure that is pretty strong, and have the others for different bits and pieces. The men might sing a verse, then the women, this allows the men in the Assembly to sing lower. That is where a conductor is really beneficial. She or he works out what they want, and we sing or play it. The organist is told what to play and whn, and if we are going to accompany or not.

We have several different choirs for the different Mass times. The choirs all function like that. When all the choirs form one choir, on special occasions , it depends who shows up as to who is appointed conductor. It is usually between 2 or 3. Even whenwe have Priests join the choir ranks, they still follow the conductor
jesusmademe said:
So they don’t care about people who are different! Why shouod those who are different not be taken into consideration? This confuses me. Even at church they dont want people to be different! What a shame!!!
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We should not stand out, we are there to worship God. Humility is the key.
 
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Singing is praying twice! It may not sound very pleasing to the ears, but the fact that untrained people are singing there hearts out to the Lord is highly commendable and impressive.

My father and I are both is horribly off key, but what would a Christian be, to say someone shouldn’t sing to God because of their key?
 
GiftofMercy said:
How can and organist play and conduct, its one or the other , need 2 hands for both activities
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They don’t seem to conduct, other than with head nods. We definitely don’t have anyone leading except the organist, who is also paid to be the choir director.
 
GiftofMercy said:
How can and organist play and conduct, its one or the other , need 2 hands for both activities
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Many organists and some pianists play and conduct at the same time! This is very common!

My organ teacher conducts choirs, soloists, and ensembles while he plays the organ!

The piano teacher that taught me while I was growing up was the Music Director and Choir Master at her large Lutheran church, and she conducted at the same time as she played by using her head, and by lifting one hand off the keyboard at various times. She taught me some of her techniques.

When I play piano, I have a tendency to “conduct” with my head because of some of my experiences working with children’s choirs. I’m sure it looks really kind of silly, but I just do it out of habit.

It’s a skill born of necessity!
 
JulianN said:
They don’t seem to conduct, other than with head nods. We definitely don’t have anyone leading except the organist, who is also paid to be the choir director.
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We would be lost without our conductors. They keep us in line! And tell those being too loud or too prominent to back it off. They also ensure we get to rehearsals as per requested and we even have to put in apologies if we don’t get to rehearsals. Tight ship. I wonder now if it is because our Bishop is so musical, and has definite ideas of what he wants. We do have a very old Pipe Organ that needs to be respected 🙂
 
Peeps said:
Many organists and some pianists play and conduct at the same time! This is very common!
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I cannot see how this would work when both require 100% concentration, and two hands. There is a lot to be said for sharing the work around and giving people a go at different things. The Choir needs to be functional when organists, regular conductor, and half the choir is not there. So we change it up a bit and the conductor gives a couple of others a go.
 
There are many times we notice things at Mass that need improvement, and nobody argues that we should jump in there and fix those types of things. For example, one Church I went to had tons of dead flies in the lampshades. When I mentioned this, they said, “Thanks, we’ll let maintenance know.” (No ladder was proffered.)

Another example, for the last couple of weeks, I have noticed the hosts are stale. The priest said “the office will deal with it.” (They didn’t hand me flour.)

So if I were to mention that the choir keeps playing the opening song too fast in some vain attempt to get things hopping, the right response would be, “We’ll get the choir director on it,” not, “Well, why don’t you join the choir?”

Songs in our hymn books are very carefully written so that nothing is above a “d” (nine notes above middle c). Most people cannot sing higher than an “a” or “b”. But then if you transpose the piece down, their low notes will be groveling in the mud. And it won’t be nearly as beautiful at the top end. So really, pieces should not be transposed to accommodate the average person. Rather, the average person should just leave out the high notes and let the choir sing it, presuming the choir can sing.
 
GiftofMercy said:
I cannot see how this would work when both require 100% concentration, and two hands.
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It works very well and has worked for centuries.

Organists have super powers! Oooh, ahhh

Seriously, trained organists learn these skills from their teachers and if they graduate from college with a degree in organ, they continue to develop the “multi-tasking” skills.

Even a very elementary organist like me can change stops while playing songs!
 
For starters we can not see anything of the organist except the very top of her head. And she would have a very difficult time seeing us. It would not work where I am at all. Conductors have been used for centuries too, There is a grand conductor tradition. Even our principle organist, who has very prestigous awards for her work , service and skill, would not be able to conduct from her position on the pipe organ. And nor would she want to. I can hear her now!

You know what the pit of a pipe organ is like and we have quite a big one, and it is very ancient.
 
How do I find the tenor part? I have no book with the tenor part. I only have a book with organ accompaninemts.
And I guess singing the kyriale with a line third above could work.
 
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We have a Parish Director of Music. He (apparently shockingly) has the musicians play and the cantors/choir sing in the key that is presented in the hymnal.
 
TheLittleLady said:
We have a Parish Director of Music. He (apparently shockingly) has the musicians play and the cantors/choir sing in the key that is presented in the hymnal.
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Yes I think people forget its a bit like the Church Hierarchy. There is a boss, he or she decides , and the rest of us, whether we are Pavarotti, Nana Mouskouri or your weekend hack, do what is asked. It is for the Mass, not for the individual.
If things are not working, they get adjusted pretty fast.
There is a music committee that meets and discusses. Our priests and Bishop always have (name removed by moderator)ut in that. In one Parish, at present that of the Vicar General, he has given a list of hymns out of the approved hymnal that might be chosen for the Mass there. When choosing the Mass hymns we go off his list , not the hymnal 🙂
 
In our Diocese, the pastors are given the authority to determine hymns, hymnals, etc. Some pastors are very involved in the music, we have had pastors with lists of selections from the hymnal that were not allowed. Other pastors turn it all over to the music director, others have a committee, it varies.

Thing is, there is not a group who are plotting to have the music in a “difficult key” to somehow stymie the congregation from singing. I hope our original poster can find a way to open the heart and ears to the beauty of music as prayer!
 
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